The miduradroni (/mɪˈdʊərədrəʊni/) is a rounded, weightless stranger with flame-like eye markings and small pupils. Its arms and tail are short, with slightly neotenic proportions in the hands and feet. Its body is filled with a mixture of superheated gases, giving it an internal temperature of 539,540°F, fifty times hotter than the surface of the sun. Due to its thick, hyper-dense skin, however, it does not radiate this heat outward, and is only slightly warm to the touch. Its skin feels like the surface of an old eraser, and leaves the faint smell of burning dust in the air behind it. Although the miduradroni is somewhat pliable to the touch, it resists most stretching, cutting, and tearing, and is completely unaffected by heat or fire, conducting no heat. Any regenerative ability, however, appears nonexistent.

The miduradroni cannot speak, and, in fact, its lips are sealed entirely.

environment and generation

The miduradroni appears in residential areas, and is much more likely to appear in buildings that have been standing with minimal changes for at least 100-130 years. Historic, upscale houses are a common home for a miduradroni, as are decrepit, brick-walled apartment buildings which have received only the barest of maintenance over the years.

When it first appears, it balloons in size from a tiny point, a motion that takes less than a second.

behaviour and effects

The miduradroni possesses an impassive and oblivious disposition. It does not engage with the world around it, and instead, floats in the air with neither aim nor intention, only occasionally twitching its fingers or toes. It remains at a height of 5.4-11 feet, and although individual miduradroni do appear to have a preference in terms of where they float, this preference is by no means a constant. The miduradroni's body is not particularly flexible, and as such, it is limited to weak, incidental interactions with the world, such as grabbing at curtains, pulling at peeling wallpaper, or knocking books and plates off of high shelves. It does seem to gravitate towards sources of heat, such as fireplaces, ovens, and radiators, but avoids open flame.

The miduradroni exhibits several unusual properties. Certain objects catch on fire when placed against the miduradroni's surface, while other objects remain unaffected. Lightweight paper ignites, as does thin fabric, such as silk. Thick paper and heavy cloth, however, display no change in temperature. The miduradroni never burns human skin, but has been known to sear meat placed upon its surface. It cooks eggs, but leaves most plants unaffected. Wood is heated, but rarely catches flame. Certain types of metal, however, become molten almost instantly, while others remain at ambient temperatures.

The miduradroni appears indifferent to fires which it causes.

"As I roasted, the creatures bounced in the air above me. My skin burned in flakes, peeled back, pastry flakes over black. The creatures said nothing, oblivious to the thought that aiding me was ever an option, and made all the more blissful for their ignorance." Paora, Timoti. personal journal 7:78

The miduradroni is small when it first appears, but the presence of heat causes it to grow slightly larger over time, with the largest miduradroni reaching lengths of up to nine feet. The miduradroni is destroyed by freezing temperatures, which cause its body to gradually cool and deflate, with some slight and temporary wrinkling of the surface following this reduction in mass.

interactions with sensitives

The miduradroni does not react to sensitives in any way. Sensitives, however, do notice a slight increase in body temperature when around the miduradroni, ranging from 0.5-1°F.

Although the miduradroni's thick skin resists incidental cuts (preventing it from being punctured by the sharp edges of furniture, errant nails, or other jagged objects), sharp jabs or gunshots can pierce its skin. These violent actions, however, appear to activate the miduradroni's defense mechanism.

"I shot at the thing, and it was in that instant that I felt it, all of a sudden, like I was burning. I'd felt fire before – I mean, I'd burnt myself on the stove, or dropped a cigarette on my knee, or rested my elbow on a hot radiator, but this...it roasted me, it was all upon me, turning my skin to a crisp. My eyes were watery, my throat felt like it would close up, and I crawled forward – to find a sink, maybe? A bathtub? I wasn't thinking straight, it was too much. It was bubbling now, it was curling my muscles up like crackling bacon, my teeth were about to popcorn right out of my skull, I could feel it – it lasted for six, eight, eleven minutes, I couldn't tell – but, then, it all dissipated, like a bad dream, and there was no fire, no, nothing of the sort, there never had been, and the creature was gone to dust that lay in a precious little pile on the floor." anonymous, radio transcript

The miduradroni does slightly disrupt dreams, with individuals in a miduradroni-infested house experiencing bad dreams or night terrors. While the miduradroni does not cause non-predisposed individuals to dream of fire, those with trauma associated with fires or heat invariably have nightmares centered on this subject matter.

link to house fires

Despite the miduradroni's otherwise passive disposition, its presence appears to have some connection to house fires, and houses in which it appears are 6.4% more likely to catch fire.

"Foretold by its eyes, its houses in that city all burnt to the ground. The grey house on the corner of Washington and Height, once an old woman'd built it higher than the trees stuck all around, and then the trees were all cut down and the factories cast shadows on its sides. She'd long since died and all the walls'd grown sagging in her absence and there were four families in there now, all charred to stuff far darker than the dirt on their faces had been in life.

A young girl, she had touched the creature when it'd shown its face. She placed toy soldiers on its back and laughed when their guns drooped down, and to her they looked like wilting flowers. Her parents called her a liar and she grew to hate the creature then, and pulled the covers up above her head as it drifted around her bedroom ceiling. She hated its eyes, she hated its eyes, and when the smoke and fire woke up all around her, she died furious." Muto, Alex. The Inaugural Collapse, 424

aging and death

As the miduradroni ages, its inner core cools down, and its body gradually drifts lower and lower, until it lands on the ground. Once on the ground, the miduradroni no longer moves, but instead deflates over a period of several days, like an old balloon. After deflating fully, it corpses crumbles apart into a tan-colored dust, which scatters on the slightest current, and mixes fully with any dirt and skin particles already in the air.